Thoughts:

In BURIED SECRETS by Rachel J Good, Emma Esh is impulsive, speaks up for herself, and can be honest to a fault, but she is not a complete person by her own standards.

Everyone has his or her yesteryear, but Emma remembers today and only parts her past. She wants to know why things happen to her but much of her is too scared to find out. She is well despite an accident that could have left her dead, but her memory of at least a year before is missing adding trauma inside those days of recovery to steal her playful personality.

Now, while living with her sister to help with her expected twins, Emma cannot but feel the pressure of censure by her sibling’s voice or a need to change by Lydia’s open disapproval.

Emma is prone to speak up even in her childhood years, but although she is mature, her father is evasive, her mother is harsh, and her sister acts as if she is still childlike. Something about that lost year froze them in time even as Emma became a young woman! All this could be due to her irrational fears, reclusiveness, or even from Emma’s perceived frailty, but her sister’s cringe-worthy looks, stares, and spoken thoughts suggest something more.

From the garden to a dog, her quiet life becomes anything but once she meets the family member of her neighbor.

Meanwhile, Samuel Troyer is here to help his onkel Eli with planting and harvesting since the death of his wife and to allow his own heart to heal. Sam’s betrothed was unfaithful, and he is not ready to court yet. However, a former stray dog brings him into the most uncomfortable situations with a beautiful woman next door.

Her laughter is contagious, as her smile is a blast of sunshine. However, what draws him to her is that she is unlike many meek Amish women searching for a spouse. Emma Esh is like a breath of fresh air to a wounded heart. However, his time around her seems to bring out something from her past that keeps him at times distant and at other times running to her aide.

Despite all of this, her strengths remain her honesty and her personality. No, maybe he was not ready to feel something for another, at this point in his life, but he wonders.

When does fear become a social problem anyway?

***This opinion is my own.***

Preview:

BURIED SECRETS by Rachel J Good brings a woman from death’s door into a murky past to live a better life. Moreover, one man takes her from panic to fortitude in embracing it.

Emma Esh is a survivor, but the shards of trauma have her life at a standstill.

As she helps her sister and brother-in-law prepare for the expected twins, Emma understands true love. A desire for her life to be different from the sum of her fear grows, but her courage is weak. When a stranger next door helps Emma gain strength to face her issues, a visitor from the past reemerges, and her sister’s twins come early!

As the family assembles with this news, the lines from past and present blur revealing painful secrets to keep Emma stuck inside of her mistakes.